Siel Ju

Category: Siel

Siel Ju’s publications and events

  • I have a new story in ZYZZYVA — plus a reading

    I have a new story in ZYZZYVA — plus a reading

    At long last, ZYZZYVA’s Los Angeles issue is out — and I have a story in it.

    This is my second story in ZYZZYVA — and my second ZYZZYVA story inspired by Craigslist. It’s titled “People Say they Want Something.” Here’s an excerpt:

    It was because of a couch that I met Cellie. The couch was ugly and listed under free stuff. I figured I could use it until I found one I actually wanted. The photo showed a cheap, boxy thing that looked to be made of Styrofoam. “It’s got some stains on it. It can be cleaned, but I haven’t gotten around to it,” read the description. This seemed very honest. I texted the number on the ad.

    She called me back immediately. “Can you get it tonight?” she said.

    “Tonight?”

    “I really need to get it out of the house tonight.”

    “Oh, is a new one being delivered tomorrow?”

    “No, I just want it gone.”

    I demurred. “Tonight is difficult….”

    At that she went at me: “See, this is the problem. People say they want something, but then they just flake on you. I don’t get it. Why do you go through the trouble of reading Craigslist and contacting people when you have no intention of actually getting the stuff? I really want to know. Why?”

    “No, I really want the couch,” I said

    “Why?”

    “Why do I want the couch?”

    “Yeah, why,” she said, then laughed hysterically. The laughter went on for a while, long enough that she started making me laugh, incredulously, and a little curiously too. I wondered if it would ever stop. Then she was back. “Seriously, why do you want it? It’s disgusting.”

    Get a copy of ZYZZYVA no. 119, Winter 2020! And join me for the launch reading, happening on Zoom on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020 at 6 pm PT. Hosted by City Lights Books, the reading lineup is Wendy C. Ortiz, Jonathan Escoffery, Andrés Reconco, Kathleen Mackay, Nina Revoyr — and me, Siel.

    RSVP here. See you soon

  • I reviewed The Disaster Tourist for the LA Review of Books

    I reviewed The Disaster Tourist for the LA Review of Books

    If you’re looking for a dark summer vacation read, check out my latest book review in the Los Angeles Review of Books — “Too Close to Home: On Yun Ko-eun’s The Disaster Tourist.”

    Here’s a little excerpt:

    All the upheavals of 2020 perhaps make now the perfect time to read Yun Ko-eun’s latest novel, The Disaster Tourist. This slim work centers around Jungle, a Korean travel company that caters to people’s love of gawking at accidents. Jungle coldly quantifies natural catastrophes and human suffering into tourist dollars, designing tour packages that tug at people’s heart and purse strings. 

    Read the rest at Los Angeles Review of Books!

  • I have a new story in The Hopkins Review

    I have a new story in The Hopkins Review

    Spring is over — but the Spring 2019 issue of The Hopkins Review has just come out, and it has a story of mine in it!

    “Dumbo” is about a floor of smart girls in college who all happen to have hooked up with the same guy. Here’s a short excerpt:

    We lived on the girls-only floor for the science scholars. The opportunity to live there was sold to us and our parents as a privilege and a perk, a reward for our high AP Biology scores and violin playing and community service projects, and as good girls we checked yes, we would welcome this social privilege, come to us at long last after the lonely years of high school. It was only after we arrived that we found out a floor of female scientists was not valued highly in this keg-stands and undie-runs college. We were, on the whole, not lookers. Glasses wore coke-bottle lenses. Skinny tied her hair in ponytails that gave her scrubbed face a tight, pulled-back look. Amoeba’s soft, doughy limbs resembled pseudopods, slowly extending and contracting around cheap, cakey treats. Lisse was the exception, with her dark-red hair and big boobs. She wore makeup and tight T-shirts. She curled her eyelashes. On Sunday nights she slathered her face with an algae-green mask before going to bed. “My mom swears by it, for soft skin,” she said when we asked about it in the morning, the mask now hard and cracked like a putrid eggshell. Later, alone in our rooms, we wondered why our mothers hadn’t instructed us in any of these feminine wiles.

    This story is part of a longer collection I’m working on called Defects, which you know about if you subscribe to my love notes…. Hope you enjoy the read —

  • I’m reading at the Poetry Circus

    I’m reading at the Poetry Circus

    If you’d like to hang out with me in person this summer, come to The Poetry Circus #6: Circus Noir next Saturday.

    Organized by Nicelle Davis whom I’ve been reading with a lot lately, The Poetry Circus is an interactive art event series described as “part workshop, community outreach, performance, ride, dance, and creation.” There’ll be poets, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater, face painting, light refreshments, and circus acts! Here’s the schedule:

    When: Sat., July 13, 2019, 5 pm-10 pm
    Where: The Griffith Park Merry-go-round
    Cost: Free, but if you’re into it, The Poetry Circus has a gofundme campaign going on.

    I’ll be reading in round 3, at 8:20 pm, though I’ve been already warned by previous attendees that the schedule usually gets behind due to the tendency of poets to go on way past their time limit (Poets — quit doing that, seriously!).

    See you soon —

  • I’m reading at Poetry Palooza 5/2

    I’m reading at Poetry Palooza 5/2

    Though I mostly write fiction now, I did go to grad school for poetry — and have published two poetry chapbooks I rarely get to read from. But I’ll be doing that in a couple days at Poetry Palooza!

    Poetry Palooza is an annual event organized by the Northridge Creative Writing Circle, a student group at Cal State Northridge. This year, it happens Thu., May 2. I’ll read at 5 pm in Jerome Richfield Hall, room 201 (driving directions here).

    Looking forward to getting to read with Nicelle Davis again — and to meeting Sophia Apodaca. Thank you to Sam Bowers and other Cal State Northridge students for organizing this event.

  • I’m reading at UC Riverside Writers Week Conference 2019

    I’m reading at UC Riverside Writers Week Conference 2019

    I’ve long dreamed of reading at the same event as Margaret Atwood and Rachel Cusk — and next month, it’s really happening!

    UC Riverside’s 42nd Annual Writers Week Conference happens February 4-5 and 11-15, 2019. Margaret Atwood will be there to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, Rachel Cusk will be there to give the keynote, and I — will be there as one of the writers.

    There’ll be 23 writers in all, including Aimee Bender, Quincy Troupe, and Chris Kraus. And it’s all free, including parking! In fact Writers Week is California’s longest-running free literary event.

    Hope to see you there. My reading will be Tue., Feb. 12 at 2:30 pm. All events happen on the UC Riverside campus in Screening Room 1128 of Interdisciplinary Building South — except for one off-site event in L.A. featuring Ayesha H. Attah on Feb. 16.

    Thank you to Tom Lutz and UC Riverside for organizing this event.